The use of peat as an alternate source of energy has been gaining attention in the past years in view of its large reserves in many countries of the world and its easy accessibility when compared to oil and coal. The main interest of peat has centered on its use as a combustion alternate to coal, oil, gas or electricity and its conversions to gaseous and liquid fuels.
The liquefaction of peat by hydrogenolysis with carbon monoxide has been described in FUEL 56, 57 (1977) and FUEL 57, 304 (1978).
Generally speaking in the treatment of peat it has been the practice to recover peat from the bog, submit it to a drying process to reduce its water content, transport the substantially dry peat to the site of treatment, rehumidify the peat or blend the peat with an oil prior to its liquefaction treatment and subject the humid peat or oil-containing peat to hydrogenolysis with and without the presence of a shift catalyst. Unfortunately, this system provides the use of a large amount of energy in order to dry the humid peat from the bog and transportation to the treatment site.
It is also known that peat has a very diversified spectrum of constituents which makes this material quite different from coals and other cellulosic materials in its structure as well as in the oxygen content and its mineral content. It is believed that an important change occurs in peat after reducing its water content by conventional means. It is readily appreciated that the two highly important elements in peat are its percentages of carbon and hydrogen while the third element, to be removed by the hydrogenolysis step, is the oxygen. It has been found that the percentages of these three elements are altered by the drying process of peat as obtained from the bog. For example, after reducing the water content of bog peat to about 20%, it is found that the carbon content decreases from 59-63% to 48-53%, the oxygen content increases from 31-34% to 40-46% with no change in the hydrogen content taking place. Thus substantial oxidation takes place during conventional processing of peat together with a loss of its colloidal properties.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to maximize the inherent properties and composition of untreated bog peat for the liquefaction of peat to highly desirable hydrocarbons and/or bitumen-like compounds.